Willy Foote

Willy Foote is founder and CEO of Root Capital. He began his career as a financial analyst in the Latin American Corporate Finance group at Lehman Brothers. Early in his career, he worked as a journalist in Mexico and Argentina where he discovered the challenges faced by cooperatives and small producers who lacked access to credit and markets. He founded Root Capital in 1999 (originally EcoLogic Finance).

Foote was named a Skoll Fellow in 2005, an Ashoka Global Fellow in 2007, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2008, a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) in 2009, and one of Forbes’ “Impact 30” in 2011. He is on the executive committee of the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He currently serves on the boards of E&Co, LASPAU: Academic and Professional Programs for the Americas, and the Open Learning Exchange (OLE). Foote holds an M.S. in development economics from the London School of Economics and a B.A. from Yale University.